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The dark side never looked so cute!

Despite having a young child I actually brought Darth Tater for my Star Wars loving partner!

-Packaging-

Darth Tater comes packaged in a transparent box so you can see exactly what you're getting. It has a carry handle on the top and I should imagine that many people might keep their Darth Tater's in their boxes for display and possibly collector purposes.

-What's included-

Darth Tater comes with a potato body, a set of eyes, a smile, a tounge, a red nose, a pair of pink ears, a pair of black shoes, a pair of black arms, a black material cape, a black helmet, a black mask and a red lightsaber.

-Size-

Darth Tater is the same potato shape and size as a regular potato head (maybe even slightly larger?).

-My experience of Darth Tater-

Well you can tell right away that this is a Darth Vader Potato Head - it has all the right accessories and looks very good.

From an adults point of view Darth Tater is a nice novelty toy and collectors item. It might get played with every now and again (on the sly), but overall is just something to keep. Fans of Star Wars are sure to love it.

From a childs point of view Darth Tater is great fun for mixing 'n' matching his parts up and making him look rather silly! You can mix his face pieces up or completely cover him up with his suit. You can keep his mask on but expose his head or keep his helmet on and expose his face. The choice is entirely yours!

He is also good for making up stories and enticing other toys to the dark side! The cape is also a winner - Darth Vader can fly now too according to my daughter! Or how about removing his helmet and mask to reveal his bald potato head - just like in 'Return Of The Jedi', sort of! As you can see the educational benefits of this toy are that is can encourage imagination and creativity...

Most Potato Heads have a compartment around the back to store parts away and Darth Tater is no different. His bits and pieces all fit away nicely in the compartment and prevent them getting lost and damaged which is very handy.

We also have Artoo-Potatoo (the R2-D2 Potato Head) and although we like him very much I think we all prefer Darth Tater a little more - Darth has seperate face pieces, a storage compartment and a lightsaber - all of which Artoo doesn't have.

Darth Tater is a unisex toy, however it seems more suitable for boys. My daughter will happily play with it but given the choice between this and a Barbie, she is more likely to choose the Barbie!

Darth Tater (and all his parts) is quite chunky and durable. It seems like a good quality and safe toy. The age recommendation is 2 years onwards.

This particular Potato Head cost around £10.00 a year or two ago but I haven't seen him being sold in shops for a while. You may have to search around for a Darth Tater and if you have no luck there's always Ebay!

Overall thoughts? Darth Tater would make a great gift for any Star Wars fan, young or old!

-Other Star Wars Potato Heads-

Other Star Wars Potato Heads include Spud Trooper (Storm Trooper) and Artoo-Potatoo (R2-D2), which were sold in most good toy shops.

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Great for children and big kids

"Together we shall rule as father and spud!"

The upcoming movie, Toy Story 3, reminded me of a toy that I have owned for a few years now, Darth Tater. Darth Tater is a novelty Mr Potato Head, one of the amusing cast of characters in the Toy Story franchise. Mr Potato Head has been around since the early 1950s, and was originally designed as plastic parts to attach to a real potato. According to Wikipedia, a plastic body has been part of the Mr Potato Head kit since 1964.

Darth Tater was one the first novelty Star Wars Mr Potato Head's to be released a few years ago, to coincide with the final stars movie, Revenge of the Sith. Of course, the Mr Potato Head toys are fantastic younger children's toys, but this incarnation takes pride of place in our living room, as I'm sure it does for other geeks like me.

Darth Tater, in my opinion, makes an excellent toy for children and big kids alike. The format is quite simple yet effective - Darth Tater consists of a robust plastic potato body with 11 other mix and match attachable parts:

The key parts, the helmet, face plate, arm with red lightsaber and shoes are sith-like dark black colour, which creates a menacing looking Mr Pototo Head. However, if you think Darth Tater has renounced his Sith ways, you can chop and change his appearance - the mask can be lifted once and for all, and you can give this ex Dark lord a smiley face or even a stuck out tongue! The parts are easy to take off and put on - simply fix a piece to a spare hole.

Darth Tater is recommended for children aged 2 years+. The parts are quite large which reduces the chances of being a choking hazard, and they are quite sturdy and easy to fix on to the plastic potato body. There are also plenty of permutations to give a menacing or daft looking appearance.

In terms of price, I purchased Darth Tater for approximately £10 which after a quick google search, seems to still be the standard price. In conclusion, Darth Tater, is great fun for children and big kids - join the dark side and buy one!

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Keep you eyes "peeled" for this one !!!

~~~ Introduction ~~~

I remember as a young child (sometime during the late seventies) being given a Mr Potato Head as a present ... he was a wacky looking character with the body of a potato and weird features which you could re-arrange. I have fond memories of the toy and my mum even has a few pictures of me playing with it. However, it wasn't by any means a new toy ... as Mr Potato Head first appeared way back in the early fifties !!!

It was created in the US in 1949 by George Lerner and has been produced and distributed by Hasbro since 1952. It has never been out of production since that date and is one of the most popular toys of all time. It was also a toy that made history by being the first ever toy to be advertised on TV.

Times have changed and toys have moved on but Mr Potato Head remains as popular as ever ... he even bagged a role in Disny Pixar's Toy Story !!! It was only a matter of time, however, until Mr Potato "evolved" ... and in the last few years a number of movie themed Mr Potato Head toys have been created. One of the most successful themes was based on the Star Wars movies and "Darth Tater" was the very first character to be transformed.

~~~ Darth Tater ~~~

Darth Tater is a wonderfully designed toy as it perfectly captures the characteristics of Darth Vader without losing sight of the fact that it is still essentially a Mr Potato Head ... it is clear too that the people who designed this toy were keen to use ideas from the Star Wars Galaxy without taking away anything which has made Mr Potato Head such a classic toy for so many years.

It is a toy that will appeal to young children as the character itself is brightly coloured, chunky, and begs to be played with. It is also a toy that will appeal to adults too and looks fantastic displayed. That reminds me of a job interview I had a few years ago in a very formal office. The desk was very neat and tidy and the owner of the desk was extremely professional ... but I couldn't help grinning to myself when i noticed a Darth Tater peering down at me from a nearby shelf !!!

Darth Tater is a Sith Spud with bags of character and appeal. He can be posed in a number of classic "Vader" postions and if you buy this toy for your children don't be alarmed to find that your other half plays with it too !!! When Darth Tater was originally released the cost was around £10 ... these days he can be picked up quite easily for much nearer to £5 from stores such as Wilkinsons, Home Bargains and Quality Save. If you can't track one down there then just type Darth Tater into an eBay search !!!

The recommended age for this toy is 2+ ... mainly due to small parts. However, I did allow my 19 month old son play with Darth Tater (but made sure I supervised him just in case he put any of the parts in his mouth). I discovered that as a result of playing with this toy he learned how to say "eyes" "nose" and "smile" whilst slotting the different face parts in !!!

~~~ What's included in the box ? ~~~

In the box you get the potato body as well as a helmet, a face mask, a cape, a red lightsaber, two arms, shoes, eyes, nose and teeth. Just like the original Mr Potato Head the different parts can be swapped and changed. In addition to this the parts can also be mixed and matched with other themed Mr Potato Heads which enbles you to make some weird and wonderful creations. Any parts that you are not using can be safely stored inside the secret compartment ... which is located by opening a hatch at the back of the potato body.

Spudtrooper and Artoo-Potatoo are widely available in many shops ... and currently sell for around £5 (Wilkinsons, Toys R Us, The Entertainer). The Disney Theme Park Exclusives can either be bought direct from a Disney Theme Park or ordered through Amazon (although many of these "exclusive" toys have found their way into specialized UK sci-fi stores such as Forbidden Planet).

*** It may also be worth checking out eBay too as a few days ago I noticed a winning bid of just under £20 on a set of all five of the Disney Exclusive Star Wars Potato Heads ... which i thought was a real bargain for the lucky winning bidder !!!

~~~ Final Thought ~~~

Darth Tater is a fantastic toy ... well designed and wonderfully re-invented without losing sight of what made the original Mr Potato Head such a classic !!!

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Men will be boys!!!

***Background***

There are a few ways to get a man to marry you. I think what really made my hubby realise that I was the one though was when I bought him the three Star Wars Potato Heads for Christmas the other year. You see I'm not a Star Wars fan at all but my hubby is a bit of a (dare I say it?) freak when it comes to collecting things like this and had been looking at them longingly for ages.

Mr Potato Head has been on the go for many years and I remember having him and his wife when I was but a little girlie. They would keep me amused for hours, putting different eyes on them and changing their noses and ears constantly. Most of this information comes from my mum although I do remember them a little bit.

Darth Tater is of course based around the baddie of the films who is of course Darth Vader. See what those clever people at Playskool and Hasbro have done. Darth Vader went over to the dark side because he believed it would save the love of his life but of course it was all lies. Just in case I get any of that wrong, I've been told what happens because I've been watching and playing Star Wars Lego on PS2 lately. That was a Christmas present this year for my man.

***The Age Limit***

This toy is marketed for children aged two and upwards and I stress that it doesn't just mean mental age. My husband won't let our 5-year-old son play with this though and I think he's being very mean.

I would actually say that this isn't really suitable for children as young as two. Although most of the pieces are quite large, I would be worried about them being chewed and bits breaking off, which then might cause a choking hazard.

***The Attachments***

The body is pretty standard and is full of holes just like the normal versions. This is for sticking the various bits and pieces into it and dressing up your tater. It comes with a set of eyes, two ears, a nose, a tongue and a set of teeth and these are all pretty normal looking pieces.

What sets this one aside though is the other sections that make him a dark spud. He wouldn't be complete without his black faceplate and helmet of course but he also comes with a black cape and black shoes too. Finally are his arms, which are again coloured black and in his right hand he holds his red light sabre.

***The Toy***

The toy is great fun to play with, well I say that but I am not allowed to play with it either, my hubby is so mean sometimes. He will sit and have great fun mixing and matching body parts and it only gets worse if he has friends over and a beer or two has been consumed. Some of the ways they dress this tater up are just plain daft.

As I mentioned earlier he got the Spudtrooper and the Artoo Potatoo versions along with this one and he did struggle whether to open them or not because of the collectiblity aspect of this type of toy. He couldn't really contain himself though and had to take it out to have a proper play. When it's not being played with though, it carefully gets put back in the box to sit up on a shelf.

If you do want to ditch the box, there is a compartment at the back of the spud body that opens and you can put some of the pieces in there for safekeeping. I have to say that this one is quite realistic with the black attachments although some of the other things that are suggested on the box for making other versions are a lot funnier.

***Price and Availability***

When these first appeared in the shops you could spend up to £20 each on them, but they seem to sell for around £10 nowadays. I managed to get them from Amazon in the sale at the time for only £4.99, which was why hubby got all three, because it seemed too good an opportunity to miss.

***Final Thoughts***

For any fan of Star Wars, this has to be an essential present. Darth Tater really makes a stunning addition to the collection in our house. As it says on the box,

"As a Dark Lord of the Sith, Darth Tater was once a promising young Jedi who lost his roots!"